In the conventional method of effecting in-store electronic payments, the merchant's customer interfaces a payment card with the merchant's pin-pad terminal, and the pin-pad terminal sends the merchant's acquirer an authorization request message requesting authorization for the electronic payment. The authorization request message is directed to the issuer of the payment card, which authorizes or declines the electronic payment after considering several factors, including whether the account associated with the payment card has sufficient credit/funds to effect the payment.